- (1.) Petitioner Company has laid this writ petition imploring annulment of show cause notice dated 20th of May 2014 (Annex.12) and subsequent order dated 20th of August 2014 (Annex.14), whereby "Consent to Operate" granted to it under the Air (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 (for short, 'Act of 1981') was revoked by the third respondent.
(2.) Undisputed facts are that Petitioner Company is involved in the business of tyre pyrolysis having its unit situated at Mandore Industrial Area, Nagaur Road, Jodhpur. The Company is manned by thoroughly experienced employees for providing recycled products of quality through the process of tyre pyrolysis. At the threshold, after installation of plant including requisite equipments, machineries and apparatus etc, Company laid an application before the respondent with the project report for obtaining Consent to Establish under Section 21 (4) of the Act of 1981 as well as under Section 25/26 of the Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. The requisite Consent to Establish was sanctioned by the respondents vide letter dated 30th of March 2012 valid upto 31st of December 2014. The petitioner Company also made an endeavour to seek requisite grant of Consent to Operate and thereupon third respondent vide its letter dated 17th August 2012 granted Consent to Operate, which is valid upto 30th of June 2017. Petitioner has specifically pleaded that after obtaining Consent to Establish and subsequently Consent to Operate, the Company commenced its business strictly in accordance with the terms mentioned in the Consent to Operate and never violated any of the conditions mentioned therein. On 2nd of September 2013, the respondent floated "Guidelines for Abatement of Pollution from Scrap Tyre Pyrolysis Plants". In terms of Clause 4, the guidelines are made applicable to the existing Tyre Pyrolysis plants. The petitioner Company has specifically pleaded in the petition that in adherence of the guidelines it has installed the requisite apparatus and in order to demonstrate the fulfillment of requirements documents have been placed on record as Annex.9.
(3.) From the averments contained in the writ petition, it transpires that even before issuance of guidelines, there was protracted correspondence between respondents and the petitioner Company wherein some objections pertaining to the industrial activities carried out by the Company came to the fore. In this behalf, respondents also received certain complaints from some of the individuals residing in the neighbourhood of the petitioner unit alleging air pollution. Taking cognizance of the complaints and the guidelines issued on 2nd September 2013, a show cause notice was issued to the petitioner Company on 20th May 2014 by the third respondent, whereby the respondent Board has set out the reasons to refuse the Consent to Operate to the Company by issuing directions under Section 31A of the Act of 1981. The Company was asked to submit its explanation/reply within a fortnight for the omissions and commissions attributed against it in the show cause notice.;